An interview with Face to Face

By Shawn Hallman

Someone’s screaming obscene lyrics into the microphone, people are chowing down on overpriced food and some crazy kids are mud wrestling. Yep, the Vans Warped Tour has returned.


The Warped Tour is a bizarre mix of anti-establishment bands, playing amidst a slew of commercialization and pro-skateboarding demos. Companies try to sell you almost anything there, from clothes to a Playstation 2.


Though this year’s tour did not have the stacked line-up it boasted in previous years, there were still some heavy hitters playing. Among the highlights this year were Rancid, Face to Face, Less than Jake, and-for the yuppies out there-Simple Plan.


I met up with Trevor Keith and Scott Shiflett from Face to Face to talk about this year’s Warped Tour, by which I mean that I tracked them down, tied them up, then asked them questions and forced them to answer.


Face to Face have been rocking out for 12 years now, and are veterans, having played the first Warped Tour ever. So, how have things changed in the last decade?


"The tour has grown almost exponentially, with bigger stages, bigger sound systems and bigger crowds," replies Keith. "And, we have canned water now."


The band is enjoying their time back on the Warped Tour. With a more comfortable level of professionalism as well as some admiring younger bands younger bands, Face to Face finds that the tour is a pleasure to be on. Despite the band’s considerable success, Trevor remains refreshingly down to earth.


"I’ve found that it seems like every time we’ve scraped our way up to one plateau we get up over a hill then we look and go ‘oh shit we’ve got another mountain to climb,’" he says. "I think the most perspective you gain as a human being comes from just getting older and having more experience, living life."


Not many rock stars would have answered that way. Oh, and Trevor’s favorite colour is blue, while Shiftlett’s is green.